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Paczki Day

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Today is Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, the day for riotous celebrations before Lent begins tomorrow. I grew up in a liturgical church, which always celebrated this day, called Shrove Tuesday in the church, with a pancake dinner the evening before Lent. The idea is to use up the flour and sugar and oil in your house before the 40 days of fasting prior to Easter. When our children were growing up, I always made pancakes on this day.

The church we attend now does not have pancake dinners, but many people here buy paczkis, huge Polish jelly-filled donuts, on this day before Lent. They are available in the grocery stores, but we made the trek to the Polish neighborhood of Hamtramck in Detroit to a tiny Polish bakery packed with paczki lovers. Even a local TV news crew was on hand.

When we got there, #86 was being served. Our number was #109. I didn't mind, though. They were playing Polish polka music, and the crowd was all waiting patiently.

Boxes of pre-orders ready to pick up. We tried to pre-order, but couldn't get our call through.

List of flavors. Raspberry and lemon are my favorites.

The bakery has other items as well, including cookies, bread, and pastries. We picked up a marble pound cake, some French bread, and some angel wings (and promptly got powdered sugar all over us eating them on the car ride home).

Yum! The doughnuts look delicious. I think you made the right choice by standing in line for some. Thank you for joining Adrienne and me for "How I Wear My: Boots." It was great to have you with us! XO, Jill